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<title>rmdir</title>
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<h2 align=center>rmdir</h2>
<h4 align=center>OS/161 Reference Manual</h4>

<h3>Name</h3>
<p>
rmdir - remove directory
</p>

<h3>Library</h3>
<p>
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
</p>

<h3>Synopsis</h3>
<p>
<tt>#include &lt;unistd.h&gt;</tt><br>
<br>
<tt>int</tt><br>
<tt>rmdir(const char *</tt><em>pathname</em><tt>);</tt>
</p>

<h3>Description</h3>
<p>
<tt>rmdir</tt> removes the directory named by <em>pathname</em>. The directory
(and all the components in its path prefix) must exist. The directory
must be empty, except for the <tt>.</tt> and <tt>..</tt> entries, and
may not be the root directory of the filesystem.
</p>

<p>
It is invalid to attempt to remove the <tt>.</tt> or <tt>..</tt>
entries in a directory. What rmdir actually removes is a name in some
(other, containing) directory; removing the <tt>.</tt> or <tt>..</tt>
<i>names</i> would make a mess. It is not invalid for a process to
remove its own current directory, but it does not work to do so by
calling <tt>rmdir(".")</tt>.
</p>

<p>
It is impossible in any event to remove a directory named with
<tt>..</tt>, because it is impossible to name a directory with
<tt>..</tt> unless it is not empty.
</p>

<p>
If a directory is in use (e.g. being read by <tt>ls</tt>, or is some
process's current directory, etc.) when it is removed, all further
accesses to it should be rejected (with ENOENT). Like a file deleted
while in use, it should only be fully removed when all remaining
references to it are dropped.
</p>

<p>
The removal must be atomic, both with respect to other running
processes, and (if implementing a recoverable file system) with
respect to crash recovery.
</p>

<h3>Return Values</h3>
<p>
On success, <tt>rmdir</tt> returns 0. On error, -1 is returned, and
<A HREF=errno.html>errno</A> is set according to the error
encountered.
</p>

<h3>Errors</h3>
<p>
The following error codes should be returned under the conditions
given. Other error codes may be returned for other errors not
mentioned here.

<table width=90%>
<tr><td width=5% rowspan=8>&nbsp;</td>
    <td width=10% valign=top>ENODEV</td>
				<td>The device prefix of <em>filename</em> did
				not exist.</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>ENOTDIR</td>	<td>A non-final component of <em>pathname</em>
				was not a directory.</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>ENOTDIR</td>	<td><em>pathname</em> referred to an
				object that was not a directory.</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>ENOENT</td>	<td>The target directory did not
				exist.</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>EINVAL</td>	<td>An attempt was made to remove a
				<tt>.</tt> or <tt>..</tt> entry.</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>ENOTEMPTY</td><td>The target directory was not
				empty.</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>EIO</td>	<td>A hard I/O error occurred.</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>EFAULT</td>	<td><em>pathname</em> was an invalid
				pointer.</td></tr>
</table>
</p>

<p>
Attempts to remove <tt>..</tt> may generate either EINVAL or
ENOTEMPTY.
</p>

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